British Columbia, Canada - $2 million to restore salmon habitat will help feed endangered southern resident killer whales

The number of southern residents is now 74 in three pods, whose population has fluctuated from 70 to 99 individuals since 1976.

Washington - The North Cove shoreline in Pacific County took a beating from high tides and 60 mph wind gusts Dec. 20, but it appears the dynamic revetment — piles of rock cobble used to prevent or slow the erosion of the shoreline — held up well.

NEWBURY — The Trustees of Reservations has been awarded priority project designation status from the state Department of Fish and Game's Division of Ecological Restoration for salt marsh restoration in the Great Marsh. The Great Marsh spans more than 20,000 acres from Cape Ann to the New Hampshire border, but its vast majority has been degraded and placed at-risk by widespread historic ditching.

The plan will require $1.1 billion and involve a number of controversial measures

Commercial fishermen and their supporters let Congress know where they stand on a bill that would grant NOAA Fisheries the ability to regulate aquaculture operations in federal waters.

Alaska is warming twice as fast as the rest of the U.S., and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta is seeing the impacts faster than than most of the state.

SALEM — Oregon has a new playbook for preparing and responding to a major earthquake that dictates what should be tackled over time versus a list of tasks to get done. The playbook provides a two-week blueprint for the state’s response and expectations for prioritizing Oregon’s recovery from what would be the deadliest natural disaster in the U.S.

Nitrogen fixation by marine microbes had been thought limited to warm waters, but an unusual type of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria appears to be active globally

The number of dead and confirmed shot sea lions locally has risen -- again. The total now sits at 18, with 12 confirmed shot.

Half the country’s chinook salmon populations are endangered and most of the rest are in decline, according to a science committee that monitors the health of wildlife populations.

A barrier of small rocks and driftwood could hold the key to saving a coastal community and cranberry farms.

Whoever said Canada doesn’t have world-renowned beaches (we’re looking at you, Australians), has clearly never been to Long Beach.

COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF

PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) – Environmentalists sued the Trump administration Tuesday, claiming it refused to enforce the Clean Water Act to stop ocean acidification – which strips shellfish and coral of calcium and has caused billions of oysters to die in Oregon’s coastal waters.

For the past few years, Idaho’s Snake River salmon and Puget Sound orcas have become linked in the decades-long battle over the fate of the four lower Snake River Dams and whether they should be removed to save the fish.

Submitted by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources: Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz announced on Nov. 19, a nearly $90 million package of aquatic habitat protections and improvements to be carried out by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.

The much needed dredging for the Depoe Bay Harbor will likely soon become a reality. Depoe Bay has been allocated nearly $900,000 for the project.

A state task force has released recommendations on how to increase the population of Southern Resident killer whales, including further study of removing the four lower Snake River dams.

A $75 million fishing vessel, marooned in a Washington state shipyard because it was built with too much foreign steel, would be allowed to work in U.S. waters under a waiver to federal maritime law approved by the U.S. Senate.

NOAA Fisheries commends Governor Inslee for convening the Task Force on Southern Resident Killer Whales and the Task Force co-chairs, members, and working groups for crafting a broad package of recovery recommendations for this signature Washington species.

The U.S. Department of the Interior said on Thursday that it intends to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a potential 2019 oil and gas lease sale in the Beaufort Sea in federal Arctic waters.

Plans to establish the first oil drilling operation in US Arctic waters have hit an ironic snag – a lack of sea ice caused by rapid warming in the region.

Public comment is being sought through Dec. 3 on what are being called “significant revisions that Grays Harbor County is seeking to make” to its Shoreline Master Program (SMP) — similar to the updated review process now being completed by the city of Ocean Shores and approved by the state Department of Ecology.

Ocean Shores, Washington plans to apply for federal funding by Nov. 30 — with the backing of the state — to build the city’s first vertical-evacuation structure designed to save lives in the event of event of a coastal tsunami.

SALEM, Ore. — Oregon wildlife managers on Thursday received federal approval to trap and kill California sea lions that eat protected fish. The National Marine Fisheries Service approved the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's request to trap and euthanize up to 93 animals a year on the lower Willamette River.

KALAMA — A new study of the proposed $2 billion methanol refinery draws a surprising conclusion: From a global climate change perspective, it’s better to build the plant than not to build it.

Southern resident orcas that frequent Puget Sound may not survive without breaching the Lower Snake River dams to help the salmon the orcas live on, scientists say.

Some fishermen in the region said the so-called dynamic and static closures were heavy-handed and unnecessary.

Registration has opened for Oregon Sea Grant's annual State of the Coast conference, which will be held Oct. 27 in Coos Bay.